SANDAG joins in $1 billion bid for high-speed rail funds

While California’s high speed rail project sputters and restarts transportation agencies from Los Angeles to San Diego are joining forces in a bid to extract $1 billion in bullet train funds to make massive improvements to the coastal rail corridor.

San Diego Association of Governments board of directors on Friday joined the league of Southern California transportation agencies and next week the California High Speed Rail Authority is scheduled to take up their bid for the billion.

The rationale being used by the agencies is that the improvements will have to be made eventually to support high speed rail as a feeder system and, as SANDAG Chairman Jerome Stokes said before Friday’s meeting, “well, if high-speed rail never gets built, at least we come out of it with a great railroad system.”

In return for bringing the local rail system up to HSR performance standards and essentially supporting the high-speed rail project, the coalition of agencies want the High Speed Rail Authority to release $1 billion in Proposition 1A funds – from the $9 billion voter-approved bond referendum -- and work together to release $950 million in 1A funds “already committed to inter-regional (rail) service statewide.”

For San Diego County, the agreement could result in the early completion of 12 projects worth more than $700 million in double-tracking, bridge replacements, crossing upgrades and track realignments, according to the draft memorandum approved Friday. A final list is expected by June.

The coalition of agencies is committed to have the identified rail projects ready to go by the year 2020.

The work would be conducted along the Los Angeles-San Diego-San Luis Obispo Rail Corridor, referred to as LOSSAN, from San Diego to Los Angeles and also out to Palmdale, where High Speed Rail Pase 1 is planned.

The lone holdout at this point is the Orange County Transportation Authority which has the memo on its calendar but has not yet scheduled a vote, said Culp.

The High Speed Rail Authority is scheduled to take up the memorandum on March 1, said Culp. That state agency is also expected to release its revised business plan in April.

In January, SANDAG’s Stocks sent a letter to the High Speed Rail Authority in response to its draft business plan, expressing doubts about the prospects of high-speed rail ever reaching San Diego.

“San Diego taxpayers will pay hundreds of millions of dollars to fund high-speed rail bonds, while facing the prospect of an incomplete state system with no service to the San Diego region,” wrote Stocks.

Noting that the LOSSAN is the second-busiest rail corridor in the nation, Stocks encourages the authority to focus on investing in the corridor. “A good first start,” he wrote, "would be to consider improvements to (LOSSAN) to connect the San Diego region to the Phase 1 HST system.”

SANDAG has already approved $432 million in improvements along the San Diego portion of the tracks from the local TransNet fund. many of those are currently under construction.

If all the agencies get on board, Culp said, the $1 billion funding would still require approval of the state Legislature.